Employment Cost Trends

Employer Costs for Employee Compensation News Release

FOR RELEASE 10:00 A.M. (EDT) WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2013 USDL-13-1835
Technical information:
(202) 691-6199 NCSinfo@bls.gov www.bls.gov/ect
Media contact:
(202) 691-5902 PressOffice@bls.gov
EMPLOYER COSTS FOR EMPLOYEE COMPENSATION – JUNE 2013
Private industry employers spent an average of $29.11 per hour worked for employee compensation in
June 2013, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Wages and salaries averaged $20.47 per
hour worked and accounted for 70.3 percent of these costs, while benefits averaged $8.64 and
accounted for the remaining 29.7 percent. Total compensation costs for state and local government
workers averaged $42.09 per hour worked in June 2013. Total compensation costs for civilian workers,
which include private industry and state and local government workers, averaged $31.00 per hour
worked in June 2013.
Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC), a product of the National Compensation Survey,
measures employer costs for wages, salaries, and employee benefits for nonfarm private and state and
local government workers.
Retirement and savings costs in private industry
In June 2013, average costs in private industry for retirement and savings benefits were $1.07 per
hour worked, or 3.7 percent of total compensation. The average cost per hour worked for defined
benefit plans— retirement plans that specify a benefit typically based on age, years of service, and
earnings—was 47 cents or 1.6 percent of total compensation. The average cost for defined contribution
plans—retirement plans usually based on employer contributions to individual employee accounts—was
60 cents or 2.1 percent of total compensation. (See table 5.) Employer costs for retirement and savings
plans are affected by several factors, including the percentage of employees that participate in the plans
offered by their employer. (The National Compensation Survey produces comprehensive data on the
percentage of workers with access to and that participate in retirement plans. Data for March 2013 are
available at http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ebs2.pdf).
Retirement and savings costs were higher both in amount and as a proportion of total compensation for
union workers ($3.29 and 8.1 percent of total compensation) than for nonunion workers (85 cents and
3.0 percent of total compensation). (See chart 1 and table 5.) Defined benefit plan costs were
significantly higher for union workers ($2.47 and 6.1 percent of total compensation) than for nonunion
workers (27 cents and 1.0 percent of total compensation).
Retirement and savings costs were higher per hour worked in goods-producing industries ($1.57 and
4.5 percent of total compensation) than in service-providing industries (97 cents and 3.4 percent of
total compensation). Within goods-producing industries, retirement and savings costs averaged $1.94 per
hour in construction and $1.29 per hour in manufacturing. Costs in service-providing industries varied
widely, ranging from 14 cents in leisure and hospitality to $2.86 in the information industry. (See chart 2
and table 6.)
Retirement and savings costs increased both in cost per hour worked and proportion of total
compensation with establishment size. Establishments with fewer than 50 workers averaged 52 cents
(2.2 percent of total compensation), significantly less than establishments with 500 workers or more,
averaging $2.26 (5.2 percent). (See table 8.)
Benefit costs in private industry
Private industry employer costs for paid leave averaged $2.00 per hour worked or 6.9 percent of total
compensation, supplemental pay averaged 80 cents or 2.8 percent, insurance benefits averaged $2.39
or 8.2 percent, and legally required benefits averaged $2.39 per hour worked or 8.2 percent. (See table
A and table 5.)
Table A. Relative importance of employer costs for employee compensation, June 2013
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Compensation Civilian Private State and local
component workers industry government
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Wages and salaries 69.2% 70.3% 64.5%
Benefits 30.8 29.7 35.5
Paid leave 7.0 6.9 7.4
Supplemental pay 2.4 2.8 0.8
Insurance 9.0 8.2 12.2
Health benefits 8.5 7.7 11.8
Retirement and savings 4.7 3.7 9.0
Defined benefit 2.9 1.6 8.3
Defined contribution 1.8 2.1 0.8
Legally required 7.8 8.2 6.1
____________________________________________________________________________________________
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The Employer Costs for Employee Compensation for September 2013 is scheduled to be released
on Wednesday, December 11, 2013, at 10:00 a.m. (EST).
Employer Costs for Employee Compensation data on total compensation, wages and salaries, and
benefits in private industry are produced annually for 15 metropolitan areas. Selected metropolitan area
data were most recently included in the March 2013 news release published in June 2013. For further
information about metropolitan area ECEC estimates see: “BLS Introduces New Employer Costs for
Employee Compensation Data for Private Industry Workers in 15 Metropolitan Areas,” at
http://www.bls.gov/opub/cwc/cm20090921ar01p1.htm.
Supplemental tables with occupational, establishment size, and bargaining status series for detailed
industries are available at http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ect/sp/ecsuphst.pdf and
http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ect/sp/ecsuptc27.pdf.
Relative standard errors for all cost estimates in the most recent news release and supplementary tables
are available at ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/ocwc/ect/ececrse.pdf and
http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ect/sp/ecsuprse.pdf.
Historical ECEC data are available in three listings, all available at http://www.bls.gov/ect/#tables. The
first historical listing covers data for the March reference periods from 1986 to 2001. These data use the
Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) and Census of Population occupational classification systems.
The second listing contains data for the March, June, September, and December reference periods from
March 2002 to December 2003. These data are also based on the SIC and Census of Population
occupational classification systems. The final listing includes data for March 2004 to the current
reference period. These are based on the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) and
Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) systems.
Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request—
Telephone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service: (800) 877-8339.
BLS news releases, including the ECEC, are available through an e-mail subscription service at:
www.bls.gov/bls/list.htm.

TECHNICAL NOTE
Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC) measures the average cost to employers for wages
and salaries and benefits per employee hour worked.
ECEC includes the civilian economy, which includes data from both private industry and state and local
government. Excluded from private industry are the self-employed and farm and private household
workers. Federal government workers are excluded from the public sector. The private industry series
and the state and local government series provide data for the two sectors separately.
The ECEC cost levels for this quarter were collected from a probability sample of approximately 45,700
occupations selected from a sample of about 9,200 establishments in private industry and approximately
9,100 occupations from a sample of about 1,400 establishments in state and local government.
Comparing private and public sector data
Compensation cost levels in state and local government should not be directly compared with levels in
private industry. Differences between these sectors stem from factors such as variation in work activities
and occupational structures. Manufacturing and sales, for example, make up a large part of private
industry work activities but are rare in state and local government. Professional and administrative
support occupations (including teachers) account for two-thirds of the state and local government
workforce, compared with one-half of private industry.
ECEC quarterly publication focus
ECEC news releases are published quarterly, providing civilian, private industry, and state and local
government cost per hour estimates as well as additional detail on a specific compensation cost topic of
interest. This quarter focuses on retirement and savings costs in private industry. Topics of news releases
for the upcoming reference periods are as follows:
* September 2013—Compensation costs in state and local government
* December 2013—Paid leave and legally required benefit costs in private industry
ECEC detailed information and measures
For detailed information on the Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, see Chapter 8, National
Compensation Measures of the BLS Handbook of Methods at:
http://www.bls.gov/opub/hom/pdf/homch8.pdf.